EoK Test/Buddhist Canon, Korean

Buddhist Canon, Korean (Koryŏ Tripitaka; Tripitaka Koreana)

The Buddhist Canon

The first Buddhist canons are believed to have been orally preserved and codified shortly after the death of Buddha. These were later written down in Pāli, Sanskrit and some other languages. Soon after the introduction of Buddhism to China, the Chinese compiled their own translations of the Buddhist canons and these were gradually introduced into the Korean Peninsula from around the 4th century CE. With the development of xylographic printing techniques, a wood-block canon was developed in China during the 10th century.

First Koryŏ Edition of the Tripitaka

A similar project was undertaken in Korea between 1011 and 1087. Taking more than seventy years to complete, this canon was known as the Ch'ojo taejanggyŏng (First Carve of the Tripitaka) or the Ch'op'an kobon taejanggyŏng (First Publication of the Old Edition of the Tripitaka). In 1090, Ŭich'ŏn led a team in the carving of the extensive Sokchanggyŏng (Supplement to the Canon). Both the Ch'ojo taejanggyŏng and the Sokchanggyŏng were stored in Puin Temple in Daegu, but were largely lost by fire during the Mongol invasion of 1232. All that remains of the Ch'ojo taejanggyŏng canon are 1,715 volumes in Kyoto’s Nanrei Temple, Japan, while a few miscellaneous texts from the Sokchanggyŏng are distributed between Songgwang Temple in South Jeolla Province; Korea University library in Seoul; and at two locations in Japan—at Tōdai-ji in Nara and Shinfuku Temple in Nagoya.

Background of the Second Edition

Between 1236 and 1251, a second wood-block edition of the canon was carved—this time without Ŭich'ŏn’s supplement. This huge project began on Ganghwa Island, where the Korean court had taken refuge from the Mongol invaders. The project served several purposes:

• Systematisation of the vast corpus of Buddhist scriptural material.
• Belief by King Kojong (r. 1213–1259) and others that the successful completion would enlist the spiritual force of Buddhism to bring peace to the country.

Production of the Second Edition

The new edition, often referred to as the Tripitaka Koreana, consisted of 6,802 volumes on 81,258 wood-blocks, carved on both sides with mirror-images of Chinese characters. The timber for the blocks, carefully cured and treated, was imported from China. After carving, the blocks were coated with lacquer. Each block contained two pages of text, generally with twenty-three lines to each page and fourteen characters per line. This edition is often referred to as the P'alman taejanggyŏng ("Eighty-thousand [block] Tripitaka"). Although the editors based their work on the Ch'ojo taejanggyŏng, they also compared the Song and Khitan editions of the Tripitaka along with several Tripitaka catalogues to correct mistakes and lacunae. Because the second Koryŏ edition was based on the first, it is also called the Chaejo taejanggyŏng (Reproduced Tripitaka).

The Second Edition during Chosŏn

The second edition was initially kept in its own repository on Ganghwa Island, but was later moved to Seonwŏn Temple. In 1398, the wood-blocks were temporarily stored at Seoul’s Jich'ŏn Temple before being moved to Haein Temple in North Gyeongsang Province, where they are today. For centuries after they were carved, the blocks were used to print editions of the canon for Korean monasteries and for export to Japan. During King Sejong's reign (1418–1450), the Korean court even considered gifting the Tripitaka Koreana to the Japanese as a royal gift.

Modern Significance

The second edition of the Korean Buddhist canon is famous both for its beautiful calligraphy and its accuracy. As one of Korea’s most-prized cultural artefacts, the wooden printing blocks have been designated National Treasure No. 32, while the buildings that house them are National Treasure No. 52 (Haeinsa Changgyŏng P'an'go). Complete sets of prints are kept at Haein Temple, T'ongdo Temple and Kŭmsan Temple. In December 1995, the wood-blocks were inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. To make the content more accessible, the Samsung Foundation of Culture has sponsored a project to translate the canon into English.

Bibliography

• An Kyehyŏn. Han’guk pulgyosa yŏn’gu. Seoul: Tonghwa Ch’ulp’an Kongsa, 1982.
• Chŏn Kwanŭng. The Encyclopedia of Buddhology. Seoul: Hongbŏbwŏn, 1988.
• Lancaster, Lewis R. & Sung Bae Park. The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalog. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.
• Lee, Peter H. (ed.). Sourcebook of Korean Civilization, Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
• Yi Kiyŏng. Koryŏ taejanggyŏng kŭ yŏksawa ŭimi. Seoul: Dongguk University Press, 1978.